Purchase orders

A purchase order (PO) is a formal order from you to a vendor for stock. Hilal’s PO module tracks the lifecycle from creation through delivery, organizing POs by stage based on their shipment route (warehouse or FBA fulfillment center). Stages progress from draft → PO → In-transit → (optionally Production) → Warehouse or FBA.

In this guide:

• Create a PO
• View POs by stage (List and Board views)
• Understand purchase order stages
• Track PO progress

Prerequisites

• At least one vendor with a default lead time configured. See Vendor management.
• At least one lead time template assigned to the vendor.

Step 1: Create a PO

Go to SUPPLY CHAIN → Orders and click the New PO button to create a new PO.

Fill in the following fields:

Vendor and contact information:

• Supplier/Warehouse — select from vendors with a default lead time. The lead time determines the PO’s shipment stages.
• Supplier/Warehouse Contact — select the contact person at this vendor.

Order details:

• PO Title — optional name for this order (e.g., “Q3 Restock”).
• P.O. Date — order date (auto-filled to today; adjust as needed).
• Warehouse (for warehouse routes) — select your warehouse from those available in the lead time.
• Destination and Fulfillment Center (for FBA routes) — select the destination and Amazon fulfillment center from those in the lead time.

Shipping and timeline:

• Lead Time — automatically filled with the vendor’s default lead time; click Edit to customize stages and durations for this PO only.

Order contents:

• Products — select SKUs and enter quantities and cost per unit. The form checks against MOQ (minimum order quantity) per product.

The form auto-calculates the total order cost as you add products. Once saved:

• If a Lead Time was selected, the PO automatically advances to that lead time’s first stage (e.g., if the first stage is “Production”, the PO starts there, not in draft).
• If no lead time was selected, the PO remains in draft stage until a lead time is assigned.

You can preview and download the PO as PDF or Excel.

Step 2: View POs by stage

Purchase orders move through stages based on their shipment route:

Not all POs pass through all stages — a PO shipping to your warehouse skips the FBA stage. A PO routing through vendor production adds the Production stage.

Step 3: Use List and Board views

Go to SUPPLY CHAIN → Order Tracking to view all purchase orders:

• List view (default) — sorted accordion by stage, collapsible to see POs grouped by their current stage.
• Board view — Kanban board organized by stage. Drag PO cards between columns to advance status. When you start dragging a PO, columns where the move is blocked will be dimmed; hover over a blocked destination column to see the reason it cannot proceed.

Step 4: View PO details and receipt status

To view a PO’s detail:

• In List view — click the PO number (blue link) to open the detail dialog; clicking the row elsewhere expands it to show line items.
• In Board view — click the Eye button (View) on the PO card to open the detail dialog.

The detail page displays:

• Order summary — vendor, destination, total amount, and current stage.
• Line items table — products ordered with quantities, including:
  • Ordered — quantity ordered from vendor.
  • Received — quantity received so far.
  • Outstanding — quantity still expected.
  • % Received — percentage of order received to date.

Use this view to track partial receipts as stock arrives from your vendor over time.

Troubleshooting

• Vendor not in the supplier list. Vendors must have a default lead time assigned to appear in the PO creation form. See Vendor management to set up lead times.
• Drag-drop move blocked on the Board view. Some stage transitions may be blocked based on workflow rules. Hover over the dimmed destination column while dragging to see the reason.

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